Home Studio Questions

[Spinners]

I am setting up a home/portable studio, and am wondering if there are any standards on light positioning. like where to put them.. what distance from the subject they should be etc.. Also, should i get 500 or 1000 watts? or something in between?

any help would be appreciated.

[Yavor75]

Greetings-
Your question is too broad. There are several good books out, and several tutorials on-line. B&H photo's catalog has a good tutorial as well. It's pretty impossible to describe lighting on a verbal forum here...best of luck-
Bob

[daveh]

spinners wrote:
Iwondering if there are any standards on light positioning.

I think it's safe to say that there are no standards. It all depends on the subject, effect wanted, lights, photographer etc.

Apparently you've made a decision to go with hot lights. The most important "standard" with those is to try not to melt your subject :)

[Spinners]

Actually i have decided to go with a 1,000 watt flash system.. I presume that will be more than enough power.. i will check out those tutorials.. thanks.

[daveh]

Those are typically rated in wattseconds (joules). Then the next question is "actual" or "effective". But in any case the question of "enough" can only be answered knowing the subject, studio, and a bunch of other variables.

It will probably be fine.

[Spinners]

1,000 Watts/Seconds.. i believe.. what exactly is a joule? that wasnt mentioned anywhere on the specs.. but i couldve missed it. Ive heard the term used alot.. I understand AC/DC watts/amps etc.. but joule, not sure how that plays into it..

The studio is a large room in my house.. but i wanted a mobile kit so that i can shoot anywhere. Hopefully churches eventually as i would like to get into wedding photography.

[daveh]

A watt is a joule per second. Flashes are normally rated in joules or wattseconds (watts * seconds) which is the same thing. Continuous lighting is normally measured in watts since it runs for an indefinite amount of time.

[robertwgross]

spinners wrote:
1,000 Watts/Seconds.. i believe.. what exactly is a joule? that wasnt mentioned anywhere on the specs.. but i couldve missed it. Ive heard the term used alot.. I understand AC/DC watts/amps etc.. but joule, not sure how that plays into it..

The studio is a large room in my house.. but i wanted a mobile kit so that i can shoot anywhere. Hopefully churches eventually as i would like to get into wedding photography.

You ask odd questions. A previous poster just defined the joule for you.

Also, watt-seconds are not the same as watts/second.

There are many technical terms scattered around modern photography, and some photography classes teach them.

---Bob Gross---

[Spinners]

Ahhh wattage.. demystified. thanks for you help guys. Can anyone recommend any good books?

[lobo4200]

Spinner, sounds like your like me...in the beginning of studio lighting and a possible new career. I ended up getting a Dyna-Lite 2 head 1000 set up...very portable.
For good information on what is available, definitions, and general set up try the catalog from B&H Photo.
Read this message thread...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11782#59125

[Yance]

You sound like you really need to learn more before you go out and sink a lot of money into more equipment. I'd suggest picking up some books to learn the basics or take some classes at the local community college.

[Spinners]

Actually,

i have a decent understanding of what im doing, there are just a few things that i dont get. And personally.. i learn thru experience. Books will never replace actual experience. Although i did ask, for some good book references.

[rdenney]

A good book really is your best resource. Kodak used to produce an excellent portraiture guide that talked about classic lighting methods using four lights. But I haven't seen it in years (heck, I haven't seen my copy in years).

Let me see if I can give you a quick run-down to get you started.

You'll start with two lights. The brighter light is called the main light, and the dimmer light is the fill light. You may also use a light on the background, and another light to add specular highlights to hair, called, um, a background light and a hair light. But learn how to use two first.

The subject will look at the camera usually with an angled face. If the main light is lighting the side of the face turned away from the camera, it's called short lighting, and it's good for people with round faces. If the main light is illuminating the side of the face turned toward the camera, it's called broad lighting and it's good for people with thin faces.

I always set the main light so that a triangle of light appears below the eye on the side of the face it is not illuminating. This means that the shadow of the tip of the nose falls off the face, but still provides three-dimensional modeling.

For rugged subjects (usually men), I suggest starting with a main light that is 1.5 or 2 stops brighter than the fill light. For delicate subjects (usually women), the ratio might be just one stop. Measure each separately with a flash meter (you can't live without a flash meter if you do studio lights--get one). Adjust brightness using the controls, if you have them, or by moving the light closer to make it brighter and farther to make it dimmer.

The smaller the light source as it appears from the subject's position, the harder the shadow edges. Classical lighting suggests visible shadow lines for the main light, but not for the fill light, so I use a small (24") reflective umbrella for the main light and a large (the larger the better, mine is four feet) shoot-through umbrella for the fill light. When you are ready to spend real money, you'll buy the expensive soft-boxes, but for now umbrellas are cheap and they work fine.

For the modern look with no shadows at all, you'll want big shoot-through umbrellas as close to the subject as possible to envelop the subject with light. The pros would use 6-foot softboxes.

But learn classical lighting first, and make portraits of your friends using short lighting and broad lighting and the proper ratio of main light to fill light. When you can do that, you'll be able to tell how the pros get their effects by looking and their images, and (hint) by looking for the reflections of the lights in the eyes of their subjects.

I have a beat-up old Speedotron Brown Line 1600-ws head and four lights that has served me well. It's a lot of light--you could do most things pretty easily with 1000 ws, especially if it's a monolight (mine spreads the power over all the lights, and in a four light setup the most I can get from the main light is 800--it's plenty).

Rick "who still likes the Rembrandt lighting" Denney

[Spinners]

Thanks for the tips.. very usefull!

[Spinners]

Actually i just recieved my novatron kit, and thanks to UPS, its got a broken light, and the inside case molding is like trashed. The other two lights work, but now im very.. well.. angry.. I guess i will be working with two lights for now. Curious though. my kit came with 1 light that has no stop downs, and the other two do.. Whats up with that? i can see the need to stop light down, but why not give me that function on all of them?

huh.. thanks for the tips guys.

[daveh]

Um well, was the kit described as having 3 of the same heads? As for why, a quick glance at the novatron page turned this up: "This flashhead must not be used in the stop down mode if it is the only head plugged into a powerpack. There must be another flashhead plugged into the same pack and set to operate at full power or damage to the 2103-FC will result. This will void the warranty."

Maybe that's it (I don't know because I'm not familiar with Novatron and I also don't know what you have) or maybe it's to keep the kit price down ;)

[Spinners]

No, No, UPS broke it.. the light was shattered when i got it.. But your right, cant do that with the head. Needless to say, it was a three head kit, now im reduced to two. The worst part is these darn bulbs arent replaceable.. you have to buy a new head.. how proprietary is that! These lighting engineers are no better than computer engineers. sigh...

[daveh]

I wasn't asking about UPS. I was asking if they sent the kit that was described. Same with the user-replaceable bulbs. Some systems have them, some don't.

[Spinners]

Oh yes, i recieved a 3 head kit. and the bulbs cannot be replaced.. well the modeling ones can, but not the flashheads cannot.. i think that is stupid.. rrrr. but oh well.

[daveh]

Were they the three heads that you expected?

[Spinners]

Well i dont know alot about heads, but the kit i ordered was what i got. Had i known the lights werent replaceble, i would have purchased a kit that had replaceable flashes.. do they even make those? I like the kit very much, however it would be nice to work with all three lights instead of two. Kind of limiting for the newbie portrait taker, especially since i dont have any reflectors yet.

[rdenney]

My Speedotron lights have replaceable flash tubes, but they ain't cheap. They are over half the cost of the head.

Rick "who would be going after the shipper and the seller for replacement" Denney

[daveh]

spinners wrote:
Well i dont know alot about heads, but the kit i ordered was what i got. Had i known the lights werent replaceble, i would have purchased a kit that had replaceable flashes.. do they even make those?

OK so you're operating in kind of a "what you get is what you get" situation. Sure there are heads with user replaceable tubes. Sometimes those tubes are expensive and sometimes they're quite reasonable. Likewise, some setups allow a lot of control over each flash independently and some allow little or none. Getting back to one of your other threads - there are no standards for this stuff. It's up to you to make your choices.

spinners wrote:
especially since i dont have any reflectors yet.

In a lot of cases, one light is fine. For reflectors, try a few sheets of foam core from the local arts and crafts shop. It's amazing what you can do for $3.

[Spinners]

I will most definetly try that. thanks!